MORE NEWS, 12-21: LOVE REFUSES TO QUIT; PERSONAL SUN; EUROPE SEES NEW ENERGY IN INDIANA; THE LIQUID NEW ENERGY

LOVE REFUSES TO QUIT
Love Refuses to Quit: Climate Change and Social Change in the 21st Century
Ted Glick, December 2009 (Future Hope Publications)

"[Environmental and anti-coal activist Ted Glick has released Love Refuses to Quit: Climate Change and Social Change in the 21st Century for anyone who would like to read it while [he looks] for a publisher."

[Glick:] "This book was written primarily in response to the passage of federal climate legislation in the House of Representatives in June of 2009 that was woefully weak. A good case can be made that it would be better to go back to the drawing boards and come up with a different kind of climate legislation than for something like this to be passed by the Senate and signed into law. And it’s very likely it will get even worse in the Senate."

From 1SkyCampaign via YouTube

[Glick:] ["Love Refuses to Quit: Climate Change and Social Change in the 21st Century] is my personal response to this failure of vision and leadership on the part of the Democrats who control the White House and the U.S. Congress as well as, to be honest, most national environmental groups and the progressive movement generally."

[Bill McKibben, climate activist and founder, 350.org:] "Fascinating reflections on a life spent trying to make this country a better place, and to protect the planet of which it is a part. This is a good reminder of the depth and hardship of these struggles--thank heaven there are some people who refuse to quit!"

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"…Chapter[s]…[1] James Lovelock and the End Times…[2] Keeping It Together Personally…[3] Fasting for Our Future…[4] Building a New (Old) Culture Within the Shell of the Old (Decaying)…[5] If You Want a Revolution, Start with a Clean Energy One…[6] Tactics to Get to a New Society…[7] Government of, by and for the People and the Earth…"

[Howard Zinn , historian and social critic, on Glick’s earlier Future Hope: A Winning Strategy for a Just Society:] "Ted Glick's Future Hope is a bold attempt, provocative and intelligent, to lay out the strategy and tactics of a new revolutionary movement in this country. It draws on the wisdom of important thinkers and applies that to the unique conditions of our time. Further, it insists on combining the spiritual and and the political, the personal and universal, and dares to suggest what a good society might look like in the future…"


PERSONAL SUN
Toward Home-Brewed Electricity With 'Personalized Solar Energy'
November 22, 2009 (Science Daily)

"New scientific discoveries are moving society toward the era of ‘personalized solar energy,’ in which the focus of electricity production shifts from huge central generating stations to individuals in their own homes and communities.

"That's the topic of [ Chemistry of Personalized Solar Energy] by an international expert on solar energy…It describes a long-awaited, inexpensive method for solar energy storage that could help power homes and plug-in cars in the future while helping keep the environment clean."

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"Daniel Nocera explains that the global energy need will double by mid-century and triple by 2100 due to rising standards of living world population growth. Personalized solar energy -- the capture and storage of solar energy at the individual or home level -- could meet that demand in a sustainable way, especially in poorer areas of the world."

Schematic of the concept (click to enlarge)

"The report describes development of a practical, inexpensive storage system for achieving personalized solar energy. At its heart is an innovative catalyst that splits water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen that become fuel for producing electricity in a fuel cell. The new oxygen-evolving catalyst works like photosynthesis, the method plants use to make energy, producing clean energy from sunlight and water."

[From the Nocera paper:] "Because energy use scales with wealth, point-of-use solar energy will put individuals, in the smallest village in the nonlegacy world and in the largest city of the legacy world, on a more level playing field…"


EUROPE SEES NEW ENERGY IN INDIANA
European clean-energy developers eye Indiana
December 18, 2009 (AP via Chicago Tribune)

"European renewable-energy companies have taken an interest in east-central Indiana, where several wind farms or factories that produce wind turbines and solar-powered products are either in place or in the works.

"Companies with roots in Italy and Germany that make parts for wind turbines have already moved to the area. And wind farm developers based in Portugal and Germany could be up next…Land owners…recently met with representatives of E.ON Climate & Renewables North America [headquartered in Chicago and a subsidiary of E.ON AG, one of the world's largest energy companies] to discuss a proposed $300 million to $400 million wind farm…"

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[Christine Real de Azua, spokeswoman, American Wind Energy Association:] "It's a global economy, and the Europeans have a strong position because they have had a strong renewable energy policy in place for many years…[The U.S. has] lost a lot of time because we still don't have a long-term renewable energy policy…We are in a global foot race at this point, and not only with the Europeans."

"She said European companies' long-running expertise in developing renewable energy has allowed them to build a manufacturing base and expansive wind projects…[and China has accelerated its pace and is racing ahead to develop clean energy, which the Chinese see a big market driver for the economy and job creation]…"

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"American firms lag behind because the nation lacks a federal Renewable Electricity Standard [RES] that [would require utilities to generate a certain percent of their electricity from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources]…The concept is similar to the Renewable Fuel Standard, which increased the number of U.S. ethanol plants from 50 to 170 between January 1999 and January 2009.

"…[O]ther clean-energy developments proposed or in the works [in Indiana] include a proposed Portuguese wind farm…a second wind farm… proposed by an American firm…[and a wind project] proposed by Fort Wayne-based Indiana Michigan Power… Brevini, an Italian manufacturer of gearboxes for wind turbines, has located in [Indiana]…[and the state] has also attracted VAT-Energies and VAT-Serive -- two subsidiaries of a German company that service wind turbines and manufacture solar- and wind-powered street lights and wind turbines."


THE LIQUID NEW ENERGY
Lost in the Clean-Tech Shuffle
G.S. Early, December 18, 2009 (KCI Investing/New Tech Investor)

"Although innumerable stories emerge each day about solar, wind, fuel cells, nanotechnology and other bleeding-edge technologies, the engine behind the industrial revolution and the father of clean-tech largely goes unnoticed--hydropower…

"The US Dept of Energy has earmarked $30 million in stimulus money to finance seven hydro projects. The US Congress recently passed legislation approving $50 million in marine and hydrokinetic energy research. Hydro received another $530 million in Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREB) to finance new projects and upgrade existing ones…[with] lower-cost credit…[Through the bonds] the federal government provides the company a tax credit covering 70 percent of the interest earned…"

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"…[Up 4 percent in consumption in the US in 2009,] hydro is reentering the energy equation in many other countries. Major projects are underway on almost every continent, in developing and developed nations. For example, Norway's SN Power and India's Tata Power (India: 500400) plan to spend $3.2 billion on new hydro projects in India and Nepal.

"This trend means that the big contractors, consulting firms, turbine manufacturers and infrastructure companies will stay busy for years to come…New technologies will improve efficiency and prompt many facilities to upgrade. Funding for these installations will come from economic stimulus packages and tax incentives, or from the World Bank and its affiliates…Hydropower has been around a long time and…it's a long term investment…There's a lot less risk with the big hydro players than there is with some of the more nascent energy technologies."

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"But investing in hydropower companies doesn’t have to be so bland…[In] wave energy, for example. Oregon's Ocean Power Technologies recently inked a deal worth AUD66 million with Australia for a 19 megawatt system…Ansys [and] Scotland-based Green Ocean Energy [have] developed two generators powered by the flapping motion of two arms that ride the waves. Ocean Treader and Wave Treader are the company's latest ideas. For the Wave Treader, the generator is a complimentary power source, as the treader serves as a floating base for a wind turbine. ScottishPower, a subsidiary of Spanish cleantech giant Iberdrola launched a system in the Orkney Islands in 2007.

"There's also tidal energy. NS Power is installing its first commercial-scale OpenHydro turbine in the Bay of Fundy in coming months. SeaGen installed a 1.2 megawatt tidal generator in Strangford Lough in 2008…And for the real hydro vanguard, there's osmotic power. Norwegian firm Statkraft, Europe's largest renewable energy company, launched a plant that generates energy from osmosis between salt water and fresh water. If this technology is scalable, it could be a very big deal."